Proof of Spirits

My good friend and apartment-mate, Chris, just started a new blog.  While his first blog, To the Rails, is about electronics (and has been pretty successful I might add), the new one is about alcohol.  Electronics and alcohol?  Now that's a winning combination.

Its mostly about mixed drink recipes.  Go ahead and check it out, you might find your new favorite drink.  Link is below and in the sidebar on the right.

http://proofofspirits.blogspot.com

Gorden Freeman Drawing

This has been a very time-consuming drawing.  I chose Gorden Freeman from the game Half-Life as the topic because he is awesome, and because I thought it would be a good challenge for me.  It was definitely a challenge.

MicroSwarmigism Short 3

Here is the next short. This one introduces the virus MicroSwarmigism.  The next one might take an extra few days, because the boid particle effect is Blender is not the easiest thing in the world to work with.  


Boids are groups of objects that mimic living flocks or swarms.  They were invented by Craig Reynolds, and they follow at least three rules-- they move toward the average center of the swarm, they try not to get too close to one another, and they try to stay in alignment with the other boids.  When you see epic battles in movies like Lord of the Rings, they are animated using boids (which, of course, have a more complicated set of rules above these simple ones). 

MicroSwarmigism Short 2

Here is my next little animation.  The pink particle effect is a sort of poison mutation that these little guys use to defend themselves.  They are a little less mobile that the last guy, as you can see.  I suppose that, in contrast to the last post, these guys are eukaryotes because they have membrane-bound organelles.  Biologists, help me out here?

Anyway, more animations to come. 

MicroSwarmigism Short 1

Noah and I are working on a new project that we call MicroSwarmigism.  The idea is to make a game where you control swarms of single-celled organisms, and you have some control on the direction of their evolution.  We understand that making a game is a massive undertaking, but it seems like a fun project and we are going to try to make it happen.

This video is a simple introduction to the most basic type of microswarmigism, that I call the Prokaryote.  Its nice to get back into using Blender, and I had a great time making this video. I'm working on a few other little shorts that will be posted in the next few days. 

Nike of Samothrace

An old friend of mine reminded me recently how much I love this sculpture.  My first photo on this blog was a little sculpey version of the Nike of Samothrace, so when I was thinking of what to do for my 200th post, on my blog's 2-year anniversary, it seemed like an appropriate subject.

Gemstone Drawing

When I was little, I used to paint pewter figurines.  They were about an inch tall, and the ones that I liked often had little gemstones on them.  I used to try to make the little pewter gemstones look like they were actually pooling and reflecting light like real gemstones.  Its much more difficult in 2D, I would say, but that was my intention here.  The background is a modified metal texture from CG Textures, which is a great free texture site.

Wax Figure 3

Latest update on the male figure in wax.  I refined most of it, and worked specifically on the face and hands.

Blog Background 2

I made this background for my brother's blog, Its Computer Science Time.  Check it out if you haven't already-- link is in the top right of this page.

I made this one in much the same way as my own background-- playing around with filters and layer interactions in PhotoShop.

Alex Mercer Sketch 2

Second sketch of Alex Mercer.

Quick Female Sketch

This is just a quick sketch.  The two year anniversary of this blog is tomorrow, June 11th.  As of right now, there are 195 posts.  I would like to mark the anniversary by posting my two-hundredth post, so watch out for five more coming up.

Alex Mercer Sketch 1

This is a sketch of Alex Mercer from the game Prototype, in his armor form.  Its an awesome game, with an awesome character.  I've been wanting to make a model of Alex Mercer in armor form, but its not an easy thing to do, with the blades and spikes and all.  I've come up with a possible solution, though, so hopefully I will be able to start that soon.

New Background

Its been almost two years, and almost 200 posts, and I've finally made a change to the blog!  I just made this quickly in photoshop, and I'm open to suggestions to make it better.  I'm also open to suggestions on making it completely different. 

I haven't decided if this will be the final background, but it is good for now.  If nothing else, it is lighter than the original background. 

Cake Toppers Finished

Final version of the cake toppers.  Maybe I can find a photo of them actually on the cake and post that too at some point.  The bride has a tiny little gem on the other side of her hand too.  People seemed to like them, and I was happy to contribute to my sister's wedding (which was amazing by the way).